In a letter that was published on January 14, 2014, the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner has now advised the Alberta government on what changes she thinks should be made to the Alberta PIPA to allow it to be constitutionally compliant. The letter, dated December 20, 2013, can be found here.

In IBM Canada Limited v. Waterman, 2013 SCC 70, the majority (7/2) of the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that pension benefits should not be deducted from notice period damages. In doing so, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decisions of the BC Court of Appeal and the BC Supreme Court. My summary of the BC Supreme Court's ruling, which sets out the facts, can be found here.

In the majority ruling the Supreme Court of Canada summarized its ruling as follows: read more »

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that random alcohol testing in the workplace is prohibited unless the employer can prove that, in addition to having a dangerous workplace, there are other pressing factors such as an overt substance abuse problem in the workplace.

2. Pate Estate v. Harvey(Township), 2013 ONCA 669

The Ontario Court of Appeal agreed that the Township employer had severely mistreated the dismissed employee, but reduced the punitive damages award from $550,000 to $450,000. read more »

37. PIPA imposes restrictions on a union's ability to communicate and persuade the public of its cause, impairing its ability to use one of its most effective bargaining strategies in the course of a lawful strike. In our view, this infringement of the right to freedom of expression is disproportionate to the government's objective of providing individuals with control over personal information that they expose by crossing a picketline. read more »